There are two more awards on the mantle at the Town of Okotoks.
The Town was awarded the Business and Investment Attraction for medium communities and the Alex Metcalfe Award for Business and Investment Attraction at the Economic Developers Alberta annual conference April 7.
The Alex Metcalfe Award is an overall award of the ‘best of the best’ for community projects and campaigns produced by municipalities and regions of any size. The awards were both for the viral “There are a number of things to do in Okotoks” campaign, as well as the visitor’s guide publication
“We were competing with Calgary and other large communities for that overall award,” said Alexandra Ross, Okotoks economic development specialist..
A community must showcase how the campaign or program has generated a return with real results.
For the visitor’s guide promotion, it came down to the misunderstood tagline that went viral last fall when Calgary Herald reporter Meghan Potkins posted a photo of part of the Town’s ad on a C-Train.
A photo of the seemlingly lacklustre slogan went viral on social media, but it was part of a larger advertising campaign.
Put together, the fortuneteller accompanied the line, “Let your summer unfold in Okotoks,” followed by the infamous line, “There are a number of things to do.”
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, the connection between the two was lost,” said Ross.
Misunderstood as it was, the ad allowed the Town to connect with people in a new way.
“It was just unprecedented, what we achieved with that, and we couldn’t have planned for it,” said Ross. “We generated numbers on social media and our website that were evident of the awareness and outreach we had.”
She said some interactions camethere were social media responses from users in the United Stated and the United Kingdom, giving Okotoks international recognition.
When developing these campaigns, she said, the idea is to create an ad that speaks to people, and the “number of things to do in Okotoks” spoke in a much different way than expected.
“It was a tagline that was taken out of context, but it worked to our advantage,” said Ross. “We made lemonade – really good lemonade, award-winning lemonade – out of those lemons.”
The visitor’s guide also won awards in the fall from the Economic Development Association of Canada for its look at feelI don’t know what this means , and for the unique fortuneteller feature.
Put together, the fortuneteller accompanied the line, “Let your summer unfold in Okotoks,” followed by the infamous line, “There are a number of things to do.”
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, the connection between the two was lost,” said Ross.
Misunderstood as it was, the ad allowed the Town to connect with people in a new way.
Mayor Bill Robertson said he was approached by several people at the conference who commended the Town for the campaign. When something like this happens, the only thing to do is to run with it and bask in the publicity, he said.
Even though it was represented online as “sad,” he said the visitor’s guide was well executed.
“If you take 10 per cent of it and put that out there and say, ‘What a sad advertising campaign,’ it’s like taking a picture of one of my socks and saying, ‘Boy, is he ever poorly dressed,’” said Robertson. “What about the rest of the clothing? It’s the same with the ad campaign., Yyou need the whole picture.”
Ross said they have learned their lessons with the 2015 program and have also used the unforeseen success to build the visitor’s guide for 2016.
The Town plans to play on the achievements of its fortune- teller campaign, she said.
“Maybe we can find an even more boring campaign tagline to build on our success,” Ross said with a laugh. “But really I don’t think there’s any way to purposely create that response.”
She said business has been booming in Okotoks since the fall – something they attribute both to the curiosity generated by the campaign and to the existing businesses and attractions in town.
The focus for this year is on economic diversification, she said, building the tourism and investment industry in Okotoks to attract a wide variety of businesses.
A lot of business owners do not realize they are part of tourism if they operate a restaurant, retail store, or grocery store, she said, and the town is working to change that understanding.
“It’s the type of things already offered in town like boutique-style shopping that draw people to Okotoks,” said Ross. “These are the things people are looking for.”
She said businesses in town are helping to attract both tourists and entrepreneurs.
“They’re wanting to be a part of our community, which is absolutely beautiful,” said Ross. “We’re building Okotoks and making a name for ourselves.”
